Paris drops trouser ban for women after 200 years

One of the world's most fashionable cities can no longer skirt the issue -- ladies want to wear pants, too.

France’s Minister of Women’s Rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, repealed last week an over 200-year-old law in Paris that said police could arrest women for dressing like men, The Telegraph reports.

"This ordinance is incompatible with the principles of equality between women and men, which are listed in the constitution, and in France's European commitments,” Vallaud-Belkacem said in a statement.

The law, which has been unenforced in recent years, was created because French Revolutionary rebels in Paris said they wore trousers, and women in the movement wanted to wear them as well, The Telegraph reports.

The French government amended the law twice in 1892 and 1909, letting women wear trousers if they were riding a bike or horse. But it was held in place because officials said repealing it was not a priority.